Duck! The Carbine High Massacre is a 1999 American teen black comedy crime film about a school shooting. Released just over six months after the Columbine High School massacre event, it was written, produced and directed by William Hellfire and Joey Smack, who also starred. After the film was released, Hellfire and Smack were arrested for possession of weapons on school property. The film is said to have helped pay for Hellfire's legal fees.
Plot
Derwin and Derick are trench coat-wearing neo-Nazis from deprived families. They find a website selling top secret missiles and order one with the credit card of Derick's mother. The next day at school they encounter the school janitor who warns them of their unusual wardrobe. They launch the missile the following day, but discover it is a dud. While walking home, Derwin is assaulted by jocks and left in critical condition where the janitor finds him. He and Derick both fail their presentation on the topic of the internet due to Derwin's absence. They then form a plan to kill students at their school and then commit suicide with the janitor’s offered assistance. The pair buy two shotguns and several handguns from a black market dealer next door to a heavy metal band concert. He also offers them cocaine and sexual intercourse with an underage girl being held hostage, which they refuse. The next day the janitor arrives first with a propane bomb and leaves it in the cafeteria. Derwin and Derick appear and open fire in the cafeteria, killing several people before going to the basement where they simultaneously kill each other. The two die holding hands. A police officer and the school principal enter the school to find a bomb that was placed there by the janitor. While the policeman attempts to defuse it, the janitor is seen running away to safety before the policeman accidentally sets the bomb off. The aftermath involves the parents along with a teacher and the principal sharing their thoughts on Derwin and Derick as well as the victims. A scientist then expresses his theory of violence influence as a motive, hinting the janitor was indeed the third shooter.
Cast
William Hellfire as Derwin
Joey Smack as Derick
Erin Brown as Rachel Scott
Lilly Tiger as Play Girl
Chris Perez as Car Kid
Henry Krinkle as Retard
Michael Ovum as Spam Jock
Ryan Trimmer as Benchpress
Kendall "Shorty" Ward as Afro-American
Mazur as Song Girl
Mike Roser as Goth Boy
Liz Bathory as Goth Girl
Michael Lema as No Info Boy
Larry Wellman as The Principal
Rodney Sleurtols as The Janitor
Karl Pitt as Policeman
Production
Duck, along with other Factory 2000 films was edited in Adobe Premiere and shot on consumer-level VHS cameras including a broadcast Super VHS camcorder, a standard handheld RCA (specifically for filming multiple angles of the concert scene), and another unidentified camcorder. The film saw its first DVD release in 2004 along with minor color corrections. The film was produced with $3,000 and an inexperienced cast. Unlike previous films from Factory 2000, this film was based upon an actual event, and not mainly focused on fetishes. People who worked on the film received death threats. Director William Hellfire said that due to the painkillers he was using to treat his cancer pain, "Like I don't remember most of Duck!, I don't remember... I shot all these films in a semi-subconscious, drugged-out, zombified state. I had no remorse nor regard for anything" .
Joe Bob Briggs, writing for United Press International, speculated on the filmmaker's motivations, writing "If I had to guess, it was put together by some friends who have spent their whole lives being called "freaks"—punk kids, goth kids, headbangers—and so wanted to point out a few things that might have motivated the suicidal mass murderers". Erin Brown, who had a starring role in the film, said that the film was a "crappy little movie" which "has permanently staked its place in underground cult cinema". It took several years for the film to be distributed, because of the controversial subjects. After a message in the film's beginning mentions how offensive it is, it then says "...it was bound to become a motion picture eventually, or even worse, a 'made for TV' movie. So we decided to do it first".